Breaking News Emails

WASHINGTON — One clear theme over the past week, including at the G-7 summit, was President Trump’s erratic behavior.

But here’s another theme: How Trump has tried to use his presidency to make money.

The latest example was his defense on Monday of potentially hosting next year’s G-7 summit at his Miami golf course.

"With Doral, we have a series of magnificent buildings, we call them bungalows, they each hold from 50 to 70 very luxurious rooms with magnificent rooms," Trump said, per NBC News. "We have incredible conference rooms, incredible restaurants, it's like such a natural. We wouldn't even have to do the work that they did here, and they've done a beautiful job, they've really done a beautiful job."

More: "And what we have also is Miami and we have many hundreds of acres so that in terms of parking, in terms of all of the things that you need.”

And: "The ballrooms are among the biggest in Florida and the best, it's brand new. And my people wanted it."

One of the most constant themes of Trump’s presidency is how he’s used his office to benefit his business — whether it’s the foreign dignitaries and business leaders staying at his DC hotel, his sons (who are running the Trump business but involved in his political affairs), or now this.

In 2012, the Obama campaign blasted Mitt Romney for prioritizing profits over American workers.

And for Democrats in 2020, isn’t this also fertile ground — how Trump is trying to make money for his business? And at others’ expense?

Also at the G-7 meetings… “President Trump capped days of advocacy on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin by announcing here Monday that he intends to invite the leader to the Group of Seven summit in 2020, which Trump will host in an election year amid warnings that Russia is actively trying to interfere again in the U.S. presidential election,” writes the Washington Post.

More: “The leaders sat down Saturday evening for their first joint meeting — a dinner of Basque specialties at the foot of the landmark lighthouse of Biarritz. The meal started normally, with a discussion of the fires in the Amazon. It moved on to containing Iran’s nuclear threat. But it went off the rails when Trump blasted leaders for not including Russia.”

“Trump’s message was that ‘it doesn’t really make sense to have this discussion without Putin at the table,’ according to a European official briefed on the conversation among the leaders.”

In 2014, the leading world economies kicked out Russia from the then-G-8 for infiltrating and then annexing Crimea.

Joe Biden’s up with a new TV ad in Iowa discussing the importance of health care, especially regarding his family’s tragedies, per NBC’s Mike Memoli and Amanda Golden.

“I was sworn into the United States Senate next to a hospital bed. My wife and daughter, they’d been killed in a car crash. Lying in that bedroom, my two surviving little boys. I couldn’t imagine what it would have been like if we didn’t have the health care they needed immediately,” Biden says in the ad.

“Forty years later one of those young boys, my son Beau, was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given only months to live. I can’t fathom what would have happened if the insurance companies had said for the last 6 months of his life you’re on your own.”

The fact of the matter is, healthcare is personal to me. Obamacare is personal to me. When I see the president try to tear it down, and others propose replace it and start over, that’s personal to me too. We have to build on what we did because very American deserves affordable health care. I’m Joe Biden and I approve this message.”

Beto O’Rourke made his first trip back to South Carolina since the El Paso shooting earlier this month. NBC’s Jordan Jackson asked O’Rourke about his response to President Trump’s climate change remarks at the G-7.

His response: “Investment in stormwater infrastructure, here in Charleston and other vulnerable communities to ensure the resilience is nothing compared to the expense of cleaning up after climate change has taken place, and we are no longer able to act against it so it's the right thing to do morally and it is certainly the right thing to do from a fiscal perspective and that's the kind of leadership that I want to provide.”

Andrew Yang addressed women’s reproductive health during a visit in New Hampshire. NBC’s Julia Jester reports the blunt response: “On women’s reproductive rights, Yang said he’d defer to the [female] experts: ‘Male legislators can leave [the room] and you tell us what you decided.’”

That’s the number of announced exits of any type by House Republicans in the 2020 cycle, after Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., said on Monday he was resigning from Congress effective September 23, because his child is expected to born with health issues.

Wisconsin’s governor will have to call a special election to fill the seat.

So far, there have been 11 House Republicans who have announced they won’t seek re-election, plus two others (including now Duffy) who resigned or are resigning from Congress.

We're moving #WI07 from Solid R to Likely R at @CookPolitical in the wake of Rep. Sean Duffy (R)'s resignation announcement, but that's probably generous to Dems. It would take an awful lot of breaks for Dems to put this Trump +20% seat in play.